Joanne is a Child and Family Psychologist with 15 years of experience as a Special Needs teacher, Learning Enrichment Coordinator and Diverse Learning educational consultant to schools, across P -12. She has a deep understanding of the complexities and possibilities for children with additional or support needs, and a passion for supporting children and families impacted by a wide range of neurodevelopmental challenges, learning difficulties, and wellbeing issues.
Joanne comes to this organisation highly qualified, with extensive training and multiple degrees – across the Arts, English, Inclusive Education, Gifted Education, Law, Psychological Sciences, and Counselling. Joanne has been a member of the Professional Teacher Council (PTC) and has served PALS, one of the Teacher Associations it serves, since 2016, firstly as committee member, then as President from 2018 to 2021, and then as Vice-President from 2022 onwards.
Over the course of her career, Joanne has also held many other posts, and was awarded with Golden Key International Honour Society membership for outstanding academic achievement, nominated by Macquarie University, where Joanne studied and later joined the teaching staff in English and Linguistics. Golden Key International Honour Society recognises academic achievement and focuses on Academics, Leadership and Service. Joanne is a qualified solicitor and practised as a family lawyer where she worked on Children’s representative legal aid matters. Joanne was also National Literacy Assessment Fellow at the UNSW Global’s Educational Assessment Australia unit in 2012 to 2014, and Vice-President Education for Toastmasters (Killara-Gordon Branch) in 2013 – 2015, She was the National Lead for English Curriculum development at ACARA, during the Review of AC English in 2015, and worked on the alignment of NAPLAN literacy items with Australian Curriculum English. Joanne has been a long time IELTS English examiner and EAP teacher at Macquarie University’s ELC, and NSW HSC English marker for several years.
Joanne has delivered many teacher education and advisory presentations on needs and adjustments for children with additional learning and support needs, both in person and virtually, during the course of her work across Education and Psychology. She has also published several educational texts in Arts and English, is a member of many professional teacher associations and served on multiple curriculum review panels for the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), where she has been able to contribute to operational work on disability standards in the school education sector. Joanne continues to work in the Independent schools sector, in Diverse Learning needs (inclusive of Learning Support, English language needs, and Gifted education), and in private practice psychology where she regularly provides individual assessment and group therapy programs for children and family clients.